An organization needs a competitive advantage to stay operational, regardless of the industry it is affiliated with. Before defining its competitive advantage, an organization needs to align its values so as to meet a consumer’s needs, after which it then gains its competitive advantage by being the preferred supplier for these needs. In a healthcare setting, the competitive advantage needs to encompass health care costs and quality as well as patient satisfaction ( Gandolf, 2019 ). The definition and comprehension of competition and competitive advantage in health care may also be informed by principles and theories from other disciplines. Some scholars argue that in a hospital or any other medical organization, the competitive advantage over other providers boils down to patient and staff satisfaction ( Lukosiute, 2008 ). Furthermore, these two factors are intertwined such that patient satisfaction is a result of job satisfaction by the providers.
One competitive advantage that the organization has is its strategic mission and goals. The organization uses its values of quality, cooperation, and innovation as the primary drivers to build its reputation, rather than the cost of treatment. Due to the fact that healthcare consumers (patients) have to balance between quality and cost, the mission, goals, as well as the financial support of medical institutions have to attract patients and also the best medical practitioners and staff ( Rivers, & Glover, 2018 ). Additionally, the organization implements the use of departmental labor committees that help in bringing problem solving closer to employees. The members of these committees are encouraged to participate in problem solving alongside the managers by identifying conflict and dissatisfaction in their departments. This goes towards the promotion of quality care by promoting workforce participation, and thus improving both employee and patient satisfaction. This practice could be furthered by implementing performance improvement (PI) projects. These projects involve the setting of goals, bound by time limits, which then necessitate input and analysis from all staff to help in providing solutions and the implementations of the same ( Creating Competitive Advantage Through Worker Participation, 2019 ). These committees would continually focus on quality delivery goals and workforce productivity, and coordinate these in line with patient satisfaction as well as other leadership activities.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
In all business and capitalist organizations, the current trend in service delivery is the focus on the consumer. ‘The age of the consumer’ is term coined to refer to the present conditions where the customer matter more than other strategic rules that may be employed by an organization ( Gandolf, 2019 ). Seeing how patients have a wider variety of options, now more than ever, healthcare providers see the need to attract patients, who are now acting as consumers. The organization needs to build a positive brand as this has been shown to increase patient satisfaction through enhancing perceived service quality ( Wu, 2011 ). Kim et al. define patient satisfaction as the judgement of perceived value and continual response towards services related stimuli before, during or after service delivery ( Wu, 2011 ). Patient satisfaction is important since individuals are prone to ailments and they may need to seek treatment repeatedly in future and recommend hospitals to friends or family, thus increasing referrals. Patient satisfaction also has a direct relation to loyalty and this acts as a competitive asset for a hospital ( Gandolf, 2019 ).
As a manager, I would use advertisements to create perceptions of an institution with specialized services as well as modern facilities. This would be in line with findings that positive branding allows hospitals to gain competitive advantage in the industry ( Kemp et al., 2014 ). However, this part would only serve in attracting patients. The quality of service would then be improved by planning and implementing patient oriented services that would then increase loyalty and satisfaction, and also retention. Patients would be assured that quality is guaranteed by demonstrating professionalism and courtesy to gain their confidence. This would mean training personnel to display soft skills during service delivery, up to the point of treating patients like close friends or family. Additionally, the medical staff should ensure reliability on services especially on follow up and aftercare. The hospital should also be especially keen on the tangible and visible components, and ensure cleanliness and neatness of the structures and the staff.
Perhaps the most integral detail in increasing patient satisfaction is having higher employee satisfaction. In the organization, the demands and the needs of human capital need to have the highest priority. These needs have been shown to be positively related to the organizations performance and thus increase the competitive advantage (Mazurenko & O’Connor, 2012 ). Several implications present themselves from this proposition and as a manager, employee satisfaction would be sought through several alternatives. Before initiating satisfaction and retention, quality talent has to be hired. Scholars argue that competitive advantage is achieved when employee’s knowledge and ability can add value to the organization and are not easily imitated ( Jassim, & Jaber, 1998 ). These employees may be targeted by conducting a job analysis which would help potential recruits decide on whether to apply or not. The next step would be defining the job description to state boundaries and responsibilities in the dynamic hospital setting. After the hiring process, the next step would be regular survey of all staff to identify retention factors after which suggestions would be assessed and the most persistent ones experimented on. The practitioners would also be provided with career development pathways as this has shown to be an important factor for retention ( Jelfs et al., 2014 ). Additionally, structures for employee participation would be put in place as well as groups to deal with specific issues, which would be initiated before and disbanded after solutions have been realized.
Another means that may be used to realize a competitive advantage would be the implementation of transformational leadership in the nursing organization structure. The application of department level committees could use this type of leadership and management to mentor the team players in adopting the organization’s values and help to implement change effectively. A transformational leader helps to generate team orientation, as well as create motivation and commitment to the organization goals hence lending the company a competitive advantage by employee satisfaction, quality care delivery and alignment with the organization goals ( Renjith et al., 2015 ). In implementing this at the hospital, the department nurse leaders would receive training on the components of transformational leadership. This would be aligned with the hospital setting and encompass such factors like staffing decisions and shift scheduling to overcome the work environment problems ( Maenhout, & Vanhoucke, 2013 ). This alternative needs to be exercised cautiously since concerns have been raised about the use of impression management that often accompanies transformation leadership ( Renjith et al., 2015 ). This would be problematic in the department as the workforce is prone to manipulation from self-promoted leaders which may lead to discord and cause more loss than gain.
Our organization may also increase its competitive advantage by improving access through innovation. Competition increases value to the customers by creating cost savings through incentives meant to sustain innovation in health care. High technology attracts customers since the more services that are accessible via an organization, the more contracts may be available with employers ( Rivers, & Glover, 2008 ). These sentiments match Elrod & Fortenberry who argue that healthcare establishments need to tap into innovative pathways that their competitors are yet to discover (2018 ). They further argue that hospitals and medical organizations often focus inwardly and in so doing their exposure to externally derived innovations (from other industries and fields), which may supply differentiation opportunities, are then limited. However, the introduction of new technologies may not always mean productivity since competitors may imitate the innovations before the profits have been realized. This presents a situation where health care suppliers vary according to quality, and competition is almost always on the basis of either cheaper or high quality product ( Rivers, & Glover, 2008 ). The latter is the most preferred alternative since it leads to brand loyalty, which in healthcare, is related to patient satisfaction.
As an administrator or manager of a health care organization, this can be realized by being receptive to new ideas and being willing to integrate these with creative thinking. A manager needs to be constantly engaged in environment scanning while making conscious effort to identify innovative advancements in other fields while contemplating how these may be useful in a hospital setting ( Elrod, & Fortenberry, 2018 ). These need to be accompanied by constant experimentation and information sharing sessions to allow other stakeholders to discuss these and suggest application opportunities.
References
Patient Satisfacition
Gandolf, S. (2019). Patient Experience Imperative and a Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Retrieved 17 July 2019, from https://patientexperience.com/study-patient-experience-sustainable-competitive-advantage/
Lukosiute, Z. (2008). Building A Competitive advantage Through Staff And PatientsSatisfaction-Improving Performance In A Hospital (Master's thesis).
Wu, C. C. (2011). The impact of hospital brand image on service quality, patient satisfaction and loyalty. African Journal of Business Management , 5 (12), 4873-4882.
Employee satisfaction
Creating Competitive Advantage Through Worker Participation. (2019). Retrieved 18 July 2019, from https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/sites/ilr.cornell.edu/files/Maimonides%20Report.pdf
Jassim, R. K., & Jaber, G. (1998). Competitive advantage through the employees. Research paper, University of Auckland New Zealand .
Jelfs, E., Knapp, M., Giepmans, P., & Wijga, P. (2014). Creating good workplaces: retention strategies in health-care organizations. Health professional mobility in a changing Europe , 345.
Mazurenko, O., & O’Connor, S. J. (2012). The impact of physician job satisfaction on the sustained competitive advantage of health care organizations. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 13(4), 23.
Innovation
Elrod, J. K., & Fortenberry, J. L. (2018). Catalyzing marketing innovation and competitive advantage in the healthcare industry: the value of thinking like an outsider. BMC health services research , 18 (3), 922.
Rivers, P. A., & Glover, S. H. (2008). Health care competition, strategic mission, and patient satisfaction: research model and propositions. Journal of health organization and management , 22 (6), 627-641.
Transformational leadership
Maenhout, B., & Vanhoucke, M. (2013). Analyzing the nursing organizational structure and process from a scheduling perspective. Health care management science , 16 (3), 177-196.
Kemp, E., Jillapalli, R., & Becerra, E. (2014). Healthcare branding: developing emotionally based consumer brand relationships. Journal of Services Marketing, 28(2), 126-137.
Renjith, V., Renu, G., & George, A. (2015). Transformational leadership in nursing. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management Studies , 2 (2), 112-118.
